Suspicions Raised against Min. Ahn on Land Speculation

Rep. Ahn Kyung-Yul of the Grand National Party (GNP) claimed on Sept. 26 that Construction-Transportation Minister Ahn Jung-Nam had been allegedly involved in speculative investment in real estate, noting that he purchased the 125 pyong of land by Whimoon High School in Daechi-dong Gangnam-gu for 625 million won (5 million won per pyong) in 1989, when he served as a chief of the National Tax Service (NTS) Value Added Tax Bureau.

Rep. Ahn also claimed that ``this land was valued at 1.7 billion won in 1995, when Minister Ahn declared his property, is being utilized by his third brother as a parking lot.``

Rep. Ahn went on to say that ``it was a typical method of land speculation for exchange profit that Minister Ahn purchased the land not to be used immediately when the value of real estate was skyrocketing a year after the Seoul Olympic Games.`` and questioned ``How was it possible for him to buy the pith of lands in Gangnam priced at hundreds of millions of won at the salary of a chief at that time?``

Minister Ahn responded to the claim, saying, ``When I was appointed superintendent of the revenue office in 1980 I had a savings of 150 million won to be put into the property accumulation savings account bearing 33 percent (interest) a year at that time, which quadrupled in six years. I used this money to buy the land.`` and ``the details were already revealed in the (government official’s) list of property.``

Concerning the suspicion of bribery during his term as a director of NTS Direct Tax Bureau in 1997 Minister Ahn said ``Prosecutor`s Office searched even my children`s bank accounts but found nothing. And I do not know nor have heard of Mr. Ko, the certified tax accountant, who allegedly deposed to having bribed me.``

Minister Ahn refuted the suspicions linked to his brothers on S liquor distribution firm`s rapid growth in sales and on the supply of aggregate to Mooan International Airport, insisting that he had ``no relation to it at all.``

Kim Jeong-Hun jnghn@donga.com